Page 124 - The Way to the Top
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Robert B. KNUTSON
Chairman of Education Management Corporation
A former associate in the banking business, who had started what is now a
brand-name executive recruiting company, gave me some very valuable
advice about growth.
After I recited how well I was doing with the small private company I
had joined as President, how we’d increased revenues from $2 million to
more than $20 million in just a few years, and how I was taking on some
outside directorships in other private companies, he asked me, “Are you
really focusing on all the opportunities to grow your own business? Isn’t
that a better use of your time?”
He was right. I pared back my focus to my own company, and it was
well worth my time. Growth didn’t happen overnight, but, thirty years
later, we’ve been one of Forbes’s 200 Best Small Companies four years in
a row, our current revenues will be well north of $800 million, and the
extent of our education business goes far beyond what I might have
conceived in those early days.
Focus on your business
